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Banner Marsh
Fermata’s projects are often protracted affairs, epical rather than ephemeral. Our work often extends for a decade or more, with the completion of each phase catalyzing another. Frequently the people we began a project with move on to new opportunities or retirement before we finish. We are often the last one’s standing, the only people remaining who remember precisely how it all began.
Gulf gusher from NASA
The current gusher despoiling the Gulf of Mexico has captured the attention of the world, and no aspect better illustrates the sickening impacts than the birds. Photographs of oiled birds litter the media, and discussions of effects on the coast usually include people and birds. No one can gaze at the grisly photos of brown pelicans completed immersed in toxic goo without feeling both compassion and fury.
Fairmount Park, Philadelphia Water Works
Political currents steer us all, and at their whim. Since the advent of the Rendell Administration in Pennsylvania Fermata has been working alongside the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in a series of progressive conservation efforts. The initiatives (called CLIs, or Conservation Landscape Initiatives) have matured to a point where they are beginning to influence other states as well the federal government. The CLIs were the brainchild of Michael DiBerardinis, who served as the Secretary of the agency. Secretary DiBernardinis is now Commissioner DiBerardinis of the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department. As a native Philadelphian, the Commissioner felt it time to return home from Harrisburg. With a new administration certain (Governor Rendell is at the end of his 2nd term), Commissioner DiBerardinis decided to tackle one more challenge – the reshaping of Fairmount Park, the Philadelphia park system.
The next few weeks are dominated by travel. There is nothing like spring to entice one outside. This week I am in Scott County, assessing sites for a heritage tourism analysis. We are working with Carolyn Brackett, a Senior Program Associate with the Heritage Tourism Program, National Trust for Historic Preservation. After returning to Texas on Thursday I will be in Galveston, trying to finish dismantling the Houston office.
Independence Hall
As a native Texan, I understand the concept (and conceit) of “pride of place.” Texans have an irrepressible urge to flaunt the state’s attributes (or, at least, the way we measure them). Every Texas child receives a healthy dose of Texas history before graduation (and, most likely, a field trip to the Alamo, San Jacinto Monument, or Washington on the Brazos.) We may not know much about the world east of the Sabine, but just ask any of us about the Lone Star State.
Rio Platano, Honduras
Point Iroquois, Michigan
Sitka, Alaska
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